Tuesday Night - Liverpool

It was dark by the time we approached the port city of Liverpool. We learned that you don't necessarily need to "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey", you can now drive underneath it via a toll bridge when you make the wrong turn. We stopped traffic -again- while it took the 3 of us to figure out the correct change to get out of the toll plaza, and we got back on track towards our hotel.

Wednesday morning, 10/17/2007:
Liverpool is a much nicer city than I expected -- having just been named the European Capital of Culture for 2008. There is much construction and improvements going on to prepare for the year of celebration and many, many fans in town. Fans of football (rugby), and Beatle fans as well. The Rugby semi-finals were going on in Paris, and every pub, restaurant, and public tv was tuned to the finals. This, evidently, is a sport that must be enjoyed in a crowd of fellow fans. Loud fellow fans, but they were all having a great time. Just don't expect to get served dinner during the game because the wait staff is busy watching as well.


The Liver Building was built in 1911. The clock faces are bigger than Big Ben - in fact the largest tower clocks in England.

There are two "Liver" birds high up on each end of the building. As our tour guide explained, the Liver Bird on the tower at the "river end" actually represents a female bird gazing out wistfully across the Mersey River to see if her beloved is on his way back to her side. Her counterpart on the opposite tower is a male impatiently looking toward the town to see if the pubs have opened. We had lunch down at the Albert Dock and spent most of the day at "The Beatles Story" museum and shopping.